That Time DC Comics Had to Destroy a Book Because of Accidental Tentacle Porn

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When you create a comic book for a major publisher like Marvel or DC, there are plenty of creative and logistical hoops to jump through, so you’d think that by the time all the work is done the comic would be absolutely OK for publication, right? Well … most of the time that’s true, but sometimes missteps slip through the cracks, and sometimes those missteps have hilarious results.

For proof, consider a story writer Scott Snyder (Batman, American Vampire, Swamp Thing) told via Twitter earlier this week about Swamp Thing #15 (released in 2012). The comic was written, drawn, printed, and ready to head out to comic book shops everywhere, but then Snyder got a call letting him know that DC would have to “pulp” (shred into nothing) the entire run and make a correction. What correction, you ask? Well, it turns out the book had produced some accidental tentacle porn.

The time Swamp Thing was ruined by a giant penis tentacle. Yes, it did happen. And here is the story: I was at Heroes con a couple years ago

“And I got this call from my editor, Matt Idelson. He was like: there’s an issue with Swamp Thing #15. We’re going to have to pulp it,” Snyder said. “‘Pulp it’ means destroy the actual issue, like thousands of copies. So I was stunned. I’m on the con floor and I’m like, what? Why? And he says, ‘one of the Arcane’s tentacles. It looks a little ‘dickish.’ And I’m like: ‘Dickish? Dickish. What are you talking about? Can you send the art?’ So he does. And I look at it, there on the con floor. So I’m looking at this on the con floor, on the phone with Matt, and I’m like: ‘OK, it’s a little dickish, yes. But PULP the issue? You guys over worry everything. I mean–‘ And he cuts me off and he’s like: ‘No. Panel 4.’
And so I look.”

Swamp Thing DC Comics

And there it is, boys and girls, a hefty pink tentacle that looks like it’s sprung from the crotch of one character and is aiming toward the open mouth of another. Snyder recalls that he had asked for more tentacles to make the sequence scarier, but he’d never imagined the placement would create such a … suggestive image. So, the book was pulped and reprinted, but this little dickish misstep is not entirely forgotten. Later, Snyder’s American Vampire collaborator Rafael Albuquerque bought him the page in question as a birthday present, forever preserving this bit of suggestive tentacle fun.